“Ah! if she fell into Maddox’s hands, I wonder the less.  She showed an amount of feeling about my illness that won Ailie’s heart, and we had her for a little handmaid to help my nurse.  Then, when we broke up from home, we still kept her, and every one used to be struck with her looks and manner.  She went on as well as possible, and Lucy set her heart on having her in the nursery.  And when the upper nurse went away, she had the whole care of Rose.  We heard only of her praises till, to our horror, we found she had been sent away in disgrace at a moment’s warning.  Poor Lucy was young, and so much shocked as only to think of getting her out of the house, not of what was to become of her, and all we could learn was that she never went home.”

“How long was this before the crash?”

“It was only a few weeks before the going abroad, but they had been absent nearly a year.  No doubt Maddox must have made her aid in his schemes.  You say Rose saw him?”

“So she declares, and there is an accuracy of memory about her that I should trust to.  Should you or Alison know him?”

“No, we used to think it a bad sign that Edward never showed him to us.  I remember Alison being disappointed that he was not at the factory the only time she saw it.”

“I do not like going away while he may be lurking about.  I could send a note to-night, explaining my absence.”

“No, no,” exclaimed Ermine, “that would be making me as bad as poor little Rose.  If he be here ever so much he has done his worst, and Edward is out of his reach.  What could he do to us?  The affairs were wound up long ago, and we have literally nothing to be bullied out of.  No, I don’t think he could make me believe in lions in any shape.”

“You strong-minded woman!  You want to emulate the Rachel.”

“You have brought her,” laughed Ermine at the sound of the well-known knock, and Rachel entered bag in hand.

“I was in hopes of meeting you,” she said to the Colonel.  “I wanted to ask you to take charge of some of these;” and she produced a packet of prospectuses of a “Journal of Female Industry,” an illustrated monthly magazine, destined to contain essays, correspondence, reviews, history, tales, etc., to be printed and illustrated in the F. U. E. E.

“I hoped,” said Rachel, “to have begun with the year, but we are not forward enough, and indeed some of the expenses require a subscription in advance.  A subscriber in advance will have the year’s numbers for ten shillings, instead of twelve; and I should be much obliged if you would distribute a few of these at Bath, and ask Bessie to do the same.  I shall set her name down at the head of the list, as soon as she has qualified it for a decoy.”

“Are these printed at the F. U. E. E.?”

“No, we have not funds as yet.  Mr. Mauleverer had them done at Bristol, where he has a large connexion as a lecturer, and expects to get many subscribers.  I brought these down as soon as he had left them with me, in hopes that you would kindly distribute them at the wedding.  And I wished,” added she to Ermine, “to ask you to contribute to our first number.”